How To Successfully Change Header Image in WordPress

Finally, I was successfully able to change the header image of my other wordpress blog last night. I had been trying to do it way back since I migrated from blogger to wordpress. But I just realized that I didn’t have much patience before that’s why I was not able to do it.

I was amazed how easy it was and I am also happy that I was able to do it with the help of some tips I found online. I was also lucky that I have already installed GIMP, a photo editing software, in my Neo notebook, so it was no sweat for me to change my header image in wordpress.

If you want to edit your header image by yourself, without the need to pay others to do it for you, here’s how:

First you’ll need a photo editing program. Many use Photoshop but it’s crazy expensive and if you’re not using it everyday don’t bother. If you have a program to edit images, use that. If not, let’s go with a free program called GIMP.

Download a copy of GIMP here http://www.gimp.org/. Don’t worry about it being too techie. It’s a very intuitive program. You’ll be able to manipulate images with it in no time.

Make a copy of your header image
Navigate to your theme’s folder on your computer and open up the “images” folder.

Open it, right click on “header.jpg” and copy.

Somewhere on your computer make a folder called image work, open it and paste in your header.jpg image you just copied. We do this because we do not want to edit the original header image.

Now it’s time to get an image you like
You can buy one from istock.com or get one for free from http://www.sxc.hu
Once you picked an image, save it in your image folder.

Now open up GIMP and open up your copy of the header image. Select all and delete. You should now be looking at a blank image. We don’t care about that. All that’s important is the size.

Go ahead now and make a copy of the image you just downloaded and save it in your image work folder. Always protect your original, making a copy will do just that.

Open up the copy of your image (you downloaded) with GIMP which should still be open and play with it until you get it the way you want it. Then copy it into the other image you have open which is the same size as your header image.

Once done save your header image as header.jpg and upload it to your theme’s image folder via FTP. You know how to do this because you already uploaded your theme hopefully. Remember, header.jpg goes into your theme’s image folder.

Now view your blog. You should now be looking at the image you created. If not, check the name of the image. Is the original Header.jpg or header.jpg ? Your new header must be saved and uploaded using the same name. Including capitalized letters.

Changing the header image of our blog is one good way to improve the SEO of our site.

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About the Author:

Praning5254 is an insomniac who started blogging since 2008. She is an educator and a Clinical Instructor offline, who has the passion for gadgets and other technology-related stuffs. Online, she maintains several blogs of various niches, which depicts her passion for technology, health, food, movies, books and other interesting stuffs.